Loop Lab explores material circularity at RISD

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This fall, the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab is proud to launch Loop Lab, a pilot project exploring new possibilities for material circularity on our campus. Funded by a generous $100,000 grant from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, Loop Lab is an ambitious collaboration that turns RISD’s own waste streams into raw materials for creative practice.

This initiative brings together diverse talents and facilities across departments. We are focusing in this pilot run on collecting waste paper and paper-based materials from around campus, along with muslin offcuts from the Apparel Design department. The Nature Lab has also partnered with Printmaking to share use of their papermaking studio and Second Life Exchange to process and redistribute the materials. Over the summer, student assistants worked hands-on with Faculty Liaison and Project Coordinator Haley MacKeil (EFS) to convert spring’s collected waste into reusable base materials and forms. They’ve also been documenting novel methods of making, sharing insights into the design potential of recycled matter. These discarded materials are being transformed into new paper, slurries, bricks and clays—ready for experimentation in both analog and digital fabrication, including laser cutting and 3D printing.

Loop Lab offers an exciting glimpse into a more sustainable, self-sufficient campus—where what’s old becomes new again, and waste is just the beginning of the next idea. These materials will be made available to students at no charge through Second Life. Online resources as well as a series of Fall workshops will help students learn to work with them using both traditional and novel fabrication techniques.

Looking to get involved? Materials ordered through Second Life Exchange by Wednesdays at noon will be available for pickup every Friday, beginning mid-September.